Church spreads good will to locals at Christmas

Posted: Wednesday, December 31, 2008

By Lauren Peeples

The holiday season is a time for giving, sharing and helping those in need. One local church has spent this holiday season striving to improve the lives of area families by putting food on their tables and presents under their trees.

Riverside Baptist Church not only provided Thanksgiving meals, but on Dec. 20 the members provided 350 families with both meals and presents for Christmas. The church's Benevolence Team organized and directed the project.

In November, the church provided 352 Thanksgiving meals to local families. Each meal included a 7-pound ham, vegetables, fruit, bread, dessert and drinks.

"It was extremely exciting to see the families receiving their meals," senior pastor Joe Wood said. "As a pastor, I don't always see tangible results after praying with someone. However, when we gave the food, everyone received it with thankfulness. It is great to meet people's needs in such a practical manner."

Riverside purchased the majority of the food from the Northeast Georgia Food Bank in Athens and the Pepperidge Farm Co. donated the bread. Families began lining up an hour and half before the giveaway started.

"Part of Riverside's vision is to minister to the total person," Wood said. "Of course, churches should minister to a person's soul, but we also believe we should help meet people's physical and emotional needs as well."

Wood said church members strive to minister to their visitors' emotional needs by treating them with respect and making them feel welcome.

"We called them by name, looked them in the eye and spent time getting to know them," he said. "We also ministered to their spiritual needs by praying with every person who attended. Many of them were thankful for the prayers and spiritual counsel they received."

More than 1,100 children received toys. "We gave away toys, clothes and shared the gospel," Wood said. "We prayed with everyone and were able to lead 36 people to Jesus."

Toys were donated by church families and businesses, and some were purchased by the church with financial donations. Community members and business owners also hosted toy drives with the proceeds going to Riverside.

According to Wood, 120 volunteers were involved in facilitating the two donation drives. "I am thankful to serve a church of people who are eager to help others," the pastor said. "Our volunteers worked many hours, took vacation time and served joyfully."

Church member Paula Dixon said Riverside's outreach to the community is not limited to holiday donation drives. "We seek to help people near and far every day as our mission statement said, 'to glorify God in all things, especially ministering to the total person and to all people,' " Dixon said. "It's been exciting to see God using and stretching us."

Riverside was founded in 2002. "We are blessed to be a part of the group of people who were led to begin a new church," Dixon said. "We had about 100 people at our first service that first Sunday in February (2002) and we met at a building in Hull."

The congregation quickly outgrew its space and by late summer, began meeting at the Colbert Elementary gym. "We would baptize people in swimming pools and the river at Watson Mill State Park," Dixon said. "We would set up and tear down our audio system, chairs and nurseries each Sunday morning."

In late 2004, the church was able to build its current facility in Colbert and the first service in the new building was held in January 2005.

In addition to holiday donation programs, Riverside sends teams on foreign mission trips six times a year. The church also sponsors various programs such as the Awana program, which disciples 80 to 100 children and Delta Youth, which ministers to students. Celebrate Recovery, another ministry, provides a safe, encouraging place for people experiencing problems in their life.

"We want to be a welcoming church," Dixon said. "Everyone doesn't have to have their act together to come to church, it's just the opposite. We welcome people to come and let Jesus help them get their act together. We're blessed to be able to try to help in that process and work in harmony with what God is doing."

Riverside Benevolence Team member Al Homer said he thinks the opportunity to serve others is a blessing.

"It's a sense of overwhelming humbleness to be able to help families," he said. "Knowing that somehow in some way we played a small part in God's plan and helped meet needs of people is so rewarding. I truly believe in my heart that the church, in all its community efforts is getting the word of God spread throughout the community, and more and more people are knowing that Riverside is doing what God wants us to do."

Riverside Baptist has services at 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sundays. For more information, call (706) 548-3200 or visit www.goriverside.com.